What Is Bandwidth?

Bandwidth: The internet is a group of millions of computers connected through networks. The cables and equipment that a user connects to the internet with (including the millions of other people’s opposing internet cables and equipment), basically determine how fast your internet will be. Information between networks and the internet travels in packets made up of bits (which is related to bandwidth). A bit is either 0 or 1 (an off or on pulse in an internet signal). These bits are arranged into bytes (8 bits to a byte) and kilobytes (thousands of bytes), megabytes (millions of bytes), and gigabytes (billions of bytes) typically comprise the words, images, sounds, and videos that are transferred through to your computer. The person who provides most of the cabling and equipment to connect you to the internet is your ISP (internet service provider). ISP’s usually allocate internet speeds ranging from 12 kilobits per second to 1000 megabits per second to certain users, depending on how much you pay and where you’re located. If an ISP has 320 megabits per second allocated to them, they can give 123 people an internet speed of 2.6 megabits per second (320/123). If fewer than 123 people are on the internet, your internet speed will be higher as more bandwidth is allocated to you. However, if more than 123 people are online, your internet speed will become slower. When people download, they take a lot of bandwidth, and everyone else’s internet (including your own) will slow down. Also, please note that ISP’s charge money for connecting you to the internet, because they must pay for the servers on the internet backbone and they need to have servers of their ownandprovide wiring and maintenance to consumers. To test your internet connection and your internet connection's bandwidth, visit speedtest.net. Thanks for reading my article on "What is bandwidth."